NINE

 I was immediately apprehensive after hearing that startling piece of information and based on past experiences knew instinctively (without wishing to sound negative) that it wasn’t good news. Aliens could be on their way any moment, were they coming here for the artefact? And were they going to be very cross and angry that it was here on Earth? And most importantly of all, how did the artefact get here in the first place? I held my breath and awaited an explanation from the Doctor while everyone else in the world still carried on, completely oblivious as the changing crowds swept through the exhibition; except for my parents, Jasmine and Kyle who all displayed stunned emotions varying from incomprehension, wonder and disbelief. The Doctor continued scanning the artefact with a look of concentration.

 “Hold on, just trying to find out where it’s transmitting to. If I can fold the signal back I can work out where it originally came from.”

 I could feel my parents watching me, wanting to know what was happening. Like I could supply any of the answers! 

 “Anna, is the Doctor serious? An artefact from the Staffordshire hoard is from another world?” Dad laughed incredulous, his flustered words escaping before he could stop himself.

 “Is this some kind of publicity stunt?” Jasmine demanded irritably while Kyle looked up at me and then watched the Doctor his eyes wide and glinting with wonder.

 The Doctor was in a world of his own until he stopped scanning, the sonic screwdriver fell silent.

 “Oh that’s definitely not good.” The Doctor stood up straight and looked at us all again, his mouth was set and his eyes deadly serious. “It’s transmitting not only through time and space but across the void, to another Universe. I have no idea what we are dealing with here.” The Doctor pointed to the artefact. “The outer layer gives the appearance of stone alright… But its origins are not of this Universe…”

 “But do you know what it is? I mean is it dangerous?” I asked, it was unusual to see the Doctor stumped by such a seemingly tiny and insignificant thing. But it was an unknown quantity that belonged to another Universe.

 The Doctor began to pace on the spot, running his hand through his mass of hair.

 “Well what I do know is that it was protected by a perception  filter that made it repellent to us, the artefact’s signal could only be picked up by time sensitive’s like myself and a small minority just like Kyle here…” The Doctor patted the young boy on the back and smiled kindly. “…who have a low level telepathic ability. Though most importantly of all it’s full of time energy, soaked in the time vortex itself. Which might explain what kept pulling the TARDIS through to this time and place Anna, like it was magnetized to the alien artefact.” The Doctor frowned. “But as to what it is, it could be part of a missing component but to what? For once I have to admit that I don’t know…” The Doctor looked around the room. “It may have been underground for centuries but I have a hunch that whoever this device belongs to, they want it back and they’re coming here for it…”               

 “So Doctor… Are you trying to tell us that aliens from another Universe are coming here to the city of Birmingham and would like their “ball” back?!” Mum demanded and then laughed on the verge of rising panic. She folded her arms expectantly but in her own upfront and astute style, Mum had managed to grasp and convey the situation. In short we were in for a lot of trouble and bad “other worldly” things were about to kick off pretty soon.

 “Right that’s it, I’m calling security!” Jasmine Kaur had finally snapped.

 I could understand my friend being completely bewildered by the news she had just received but Jasmine had become more remote and alien to me then some of the outer space kind I have met. 

 “By all means Ms. Kaur. We need all the help we can get!” The Doctor quipped angrily. “Call the police, the armed forces. Where’s UNIT when you need them hey? After all I’m only trying to help.”

 A shiver ran through my body, I jumped on the spot and hugged myself, rubbing my arms for warmth. It felt like we had suddenly been plunged outside on an icy January evening. I noticed that other people in the room had felt the drop in the temperature.

 “Yes it has gone rather nippy all of a sudden.” The Doctor added suspiciously as he lifted his sonic screwdriver to take a temperature reading. “Room temperature minus one degree and falling. I’m picking up an almighty atmospheric disturbance. There’s storm on its way but it’s not of Earth origin.” My parents and Kyle began to shiver, we could all see our breaths!

 “Jasmine I know this is strange to you but me and the Doctor, we’re used to this kind of weird and frightening stuff happening.” I reached out and took Jasmine’s hand, it was colder than mine. “And I’m sorry if I left you out of my adventures and maybe I didn’t confide in you… But you’ve got to believe what the Doctor is telling you. Jas, I don’t know what happened between us, you see I travel through time with the Doctor. I’m the old Anna you used to know, Anna from 2008!” I had said it now, I guess it was my turn for the dramatic revelations.

 Jasmine gasped with shock but something in her eyes told me that she believed me. The way mum and my friend had reacted around me, it had unnerved me, what kind of person am I in the future? Coming to this familiar yet strange world in 2009, it was like I had been in a coma and awakened to find I had lost nearly two years of my life and I couldn’t remember anything. I wasn’t the same person, I didn’t know who I was anymore. Jasmine was about to respond but she stopped suddenly and turned round.              

 “Paul…What’s the matter?” Jasmine’s feature’s had visibly softened as she turned round and saw the security guard. I had seen that tender look in Jasmine before, it was obvious they were more than friends.

 “It’s Keith, he’s disappeared…vanished into thin air.” The fair haired, freckled man in his late twenties looked drained with worry and frightened as though he had seen something he couldn’t explain. “I can’t raise him on his radio. Listen just static.” Paul held up his own radio and we all listened to the ominous crackle. “So then I checked the CCTV footage in the Egyptian exhibits, the last area Keith was posted…”

 “What did you see?” The Doctor interrupted and with an edge of desperation he demanded. “Show me!”

 Leaving my parents behind, I raced after the Doctor as we ran with Paul and Jasmine to a nearby security office. I was standing beside the Doctor and saw his growing horror as we watched the footage of the head of security Keith, a well-built man patrolling through the Egyptian mummies on display in the museum. It was just as well there was nobody else in the vicinity, what happened next was over in the seconds.

 “Time eddy.” I heard the Doctor muttering darkly, I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about as he began to think out loud, uttering random phrases. Jasmine and Paul both glanced at the Doctor as though he was a mad man but the very fact we were still here must have meant we were getting through to them. 

 It was like an indoor storm or turbulence of some kind had appeared in the room, the exhibits were secure but poor Keith was suddenly buffeted around room, he had managed to get to the door and he was holding onto the handle trying to open the door to get away. But the next moment he had lost his grip and was dragged along the floor. But towards what? I could see nothing but then I blinked from the sheer intensity of the brightness as a light flared up beside Keith and when I looked at the screen again he had gone. The Doctor still continued to make his deductions.

 “Must have been an attempt to break through to this world but the portal looked unstable. An advance party perhaps, a scout to see where they are, to see what they are up against.” The Doctor grimaced. “But I don’t know what we’re up against!”     

 “Portal…What are you talking about sir?” Paul asked completely aghast.     

 “A portal, an opening between two worlds and your friend got dragged into it.” The Doctor turned to face Paul and Jasmine, his eyes full of regret. “And I’m sorry but it looks like the portal was unstable and it collapsed…Keith wouldn’t have survived that. I’m so sorry…” The Doctor tailed off as Jasmine placed an arm around Paul and they both struggled to come to terms with what they had seen and the loss of their friend.

 I stood there awkwardly and felt utterly useless but there was nothing I could do. I knew the Doctor had spared us the gory details about the poor man but was it a deliberate attack by these creatures from another Universe or an accident? Then I thought about everyone else in the building…I turned towards the Doctor but he was already vacating the room and then we were racing back to the Staffordshire hoard. My parents and Kyle Jenkins were still standing beside the artefact and looked mesmerized by it.

 “Look at it shining.” Kyle looked up and pointed, torn between fear and fascination. 

 I looked down at the tiny stone and it was indeed illuminated as it pulsated and shimmered like a miniature light bulb throwing light across the room.

 “Whoever they are, they must be getting nearer.” The Doctor looked at me and then at everyone else in the room as they began to be attracted to the light. “We need to evacuate the museum, get everybody out now!” His urgency awakened everyone from their trance.

 The Doctor didn’t have to say anymore as I pushed passed a dazed Jasmine and Paul. I headed straight to the nearest fire alarm and with the heel of my shoe, smashed the glass. The whole building was instantly flooded with the unmistakably loud and shrill ringing of bells. The health and safety minded people of 21st Century Britain began to make their way in an orderly fashion towards the nearest exit. I told Kyle he should go but the boy shook his head and merely stood beside the Doctor. He was carrying a bulging rucksack, I had a dreadful feeling that the ten year old had run away from home.

 “Right Paul, you need to get the emergency services to cordon off the museum. Tell them it’s a terrorist threat, yeah that should do the trick. Good man.” Paul pulled his gaze away from the artefact, nodding at the Doctor he turned away to speakinto his radio. “Let’s hope whatever’s coming here isn’t more devastating than a bomb.” The Doctor spoke into my ear.

“So Doctor any plans at the moment?” I shouted back into the Doctor’s ear.

 “Oh you know me Anna.” The Doctor smiled reassuringly. “Show our visitors my credentials, charm the pants off them and hope they want to have a little chat.” The Doctor crossed his fingers and gazed upwards and sniffed in contemplation. “Well that’s if they’ve got pants to be charmed off.”  

 “What’s happening Anna? Are the aliens actually coming here?” Dad shouted with his hands over his ears.

 “It looks like it dad.” I shouted back and gave his hand a tiny squeeze of reassurance. But I could tell he was very anxious about this imminent visitation.

 “Any chance we could dampen the signal by putting the artefact in the vaults or a safe?” Dad shouted over to the Doctor.

 “Someone get a shovel and bury it again!” Mum shouted over dad.

 “Brilliant ideas Mr and Mrs B but I’m afraid the artefact has been above the ground transmitting all these months. So we’re just going to have to face the consequences.” The Doctor roared back at my parents. “It’s too late.”

 “Can’t we just give the “thing” to them and apologize?” Mum shouted again but by the time she had finished talking the alarm had stopped ringing.

 Jasmine and Paul had disappeared to help with the evacuation. It was just us four humans and the Doctor left in the building.

 The Doctor frowned and rolled his eyes sarcastically.

 “Oh yeah, hand the mysterious artefact soaked in time energy to a race of inter-dimensional beings whom we know nothing about…Of course Caroline Bailey why didn’t I think of that?

 “Now look here Doctor, I’ve put up with enough cheek from you today!” Mum retorted, waging her finger in warning. Dad came up alongside mum and vainly attempted to calm her down.

 The Doctor took a deep breath and moved over to the cabinet, the artefact had stopped shining.

 “We don’t know who we’re dealing with here… And I for one don’t like to be in the dark. And nor do we know what the artefact is capable of. For all we know it could be part of a weapon of mass destruction which they could then use against us to destroy the Earth.” The Doctor used the sonic to open the cabinet, he lifted the lid and picked up the alien artefact. It rested in the palm of his hand…well just like an ordinary stone bead, but it was incredibly smooth and polished. The Doctor removed a leather pouch from his coat pocket, which he then dropped the artefact within. “Now you know me, I like to think the best of everyone  but just to be on the safe side, it stays with me for now.”  The Doctor then placed the pouch around his neck.  

 “Mum, I think it’s time you and dad take Kyle and get out of here…” I anxiously began to push my parents towards the doors.

 “Yes but you’re coming with us Anna.” Mum grabbed hold of my arm and thus the age old power struggle commenced between mother and daughter.

 “Mum get off! I do this kind of stuff all the time with the Doctor.” I shouted at my mum, mortified by her overprotective behaviour. “I’m a grown woman!”

 “You’re still my baby daughter!” Mum persisted, her grip surprising strong, shouting with primeval savagery as her eyes flashed angrily at the Doctor.

 And so it would have continued but we were rudely interrupted by a force greater than motherhood….